Shanghai, Feb. 21—The coming of Spring inevitably brings with it a host of questions about the migration of birds; and this is a subject which I find most difficult to deal with: we all have our personal and private theories..but they are very hard to prove. Here is a typical question asked by a friend: "we saw a number of Geese the other day flying South..why should they be flying' South now?": further conversation elicited the fact that some birds were first seen flying North; they hesita'- ed and were last seen flying South; so what were they doing? For the purposes of my records I can only say that I do not know. but can only guess: and this is my idea. The Goose, ike the Donkey) is one of the wisest of animals and acts in such a manner that foolish men have used its name as a synonym for stupidity: the goose travels long distances to go from one home to another....meaning from winter quarters to its breeding grounds; and, incidentally, travels many miles between its periods of migration: the goose is so wise that it does not travel blindly in large flocks to be defeated by weather copgitions....it knows better than that: men living in the far North accept geese as the true harbingers of Spring (when the ice breaks): the story is that the dwellers in these icy regions watch the skies for the arrival of the first few geese which, having surveyed the ground, turn, back to call their brethren; when this happens the men know that the ice is breaking and that true Spring is coming with the arrival of the maia flocks: Geese may move in any direction here (in search of food) until the call from the North comes. Who knows? I, for one, do not, and I have never yet been able to answer that question first asked by Job, "Doth the Hawk fy by Thy wisdom, and stretch her wings towards the South?" Possibly Job was really thinking of the Goose.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.